 |
| Victoria Azarenka struggled with the forehand during her second round defeat to Lin Zhu at the US Open |
Lin Zhu wanted to make a statement for her loss at the Australian Open, doing so in fine fashion at the US Open on Wednesday. The 29-year-old stayed tight, while errors from Victoria Azarenka were too much in a 6-3, 6-3 score line on Grandstand court at the Billy Jean King National Tennis Center.
The two met in the round of 16 at this year’s Australian Open, with the Chinese youngster going three sets against the former world number one. Though Azarenka got out of that challenge, she prepared to expect the same amount of fight against Zhu in the second round. The world number 44 upset Mayar Sherif in straight sets Monday, equaling her personal best of 2019. Defeating the Egyptian marked her seventh top-50 win this season, hungry enough to make it eight against the three-time finalist.
She got into a long rally for the first point, but a return crosscourt fell wide of the tramlines for Zhu. She made a quick adjustment, painted the corners, and took the break off Azarenka to lead. Zhu consolidated the break making very few errors on serve and reminding her opponent what to expect. The 18th seed answered on serve in the third from 0-40 down to force deuce and avoid the double break.
Despite her loss of a shutout, Zhu had great control of her offense and made it a difficult outing for Azarenka. The competition got heavy in the seventh just after the 18th seed forced deuce on serve. The two went through nine deuces where she managed to deny two breakpoints but struggled to close it out. Zhu opened the gap to a pair of games after eight, then went for the break, where Azarenka handed her the set on a double fault.
It was a 51-minute feat for the Chinese star, who had a near-perfect set, while unforced errors rattled 14 times from the 34-year-old. The second set got underway quickly, with Zhu on the ball, running the rallies. The 18th seed failed to capitalize on early chances and produced more errors from the forehand. Azarenka somehow held in the second, but the effort was short-lived as Zhu rushed through her service and broke the 34-year-old in the fourth. Zhu scored another service hold against the former world number one, sitting comfortably at 4-1.
Azarenka produced a positive game, but it was still an uphill battle sitting a set down. Zhu fed off the errors of Azarenka and coasted to a service hold. The 18th seed tied another service hold together, turning the table on Zhu to falter on her service for the match. Azarenka delivered challenges to the Chinese star, who watched two unanswered points slip by. A long ball from Azarenka handed Zhu a match point, but double-faulted, forcing deuce.
Breakpoint chances were coming for Azarenka, who played a 20-shot rally to gain her second attempt. Each time Zhu denied Azarenka her first break of the day but couldn’t bring up an AD point for the match herself. On her second attempt, Zhu watched Azarenka smash the return into the net, ending her singles run in 1 hour and 31 minutes.
No comments:
Post a Comment